Numbers

Numbers. Figures on a page. Just a concept. Nothing you can touch or feel . What is the reality of a number? It has no sense that there was something more. It has no attachments, and if it is erased, it doesn't realize what has occurred. 4000.

4000 is not a number. It is a statement. It is an unending commitment. It is a willingness to allow a larger number to replace it tomorrow, and still a larger number the day after. It tells us that we are taking away future possibilities. It is saying that there will be no doctor, no lawyer and no leader coming from it. There will be no more children or grandchildren produced by it. No longer will any laughter or any tears flow from it. 4000 is much more than a number. It is a declaration.

How much higher does this number become before it attaches to our souls? How many more lives will be forever removed before the abstract becomes concrete? When will we find the number is no longer one we can accept?

We know that for each number we produce, the number on the other side is staggeringly larger. People who have no part in our number have long ceased to be only because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.Their only crime was living where they shouldn't. And yet, for them, for no reason at all, they have become just a number.

Countless more are alive, but barely. Their world is forever altered. Their abilities forever diminished. Their time to demonstrate all that they have to offer forever gone. And yet, their number almost never is heard. It is almost as if they should be grateful. Why?

0. The absence of something. The ability to start at the beginning. The capacity to say I am here and ready to show you what I can do, what I can be. 0 is a number of endless possibilities. It is a number that lets us dream. It is a number with no past, only a future. It is the only number we should tolerate. Without it, we continue to lose each and every day. Let the losses and the number counting stop.